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Ira Winderman: With Erik Spoelstra hinting at a core four starters, the fifth opening Heatle will be …?

ira winderman, south florida sun-sentinel
·8 min read

MIAMI — Left to his druthers, Erik Spoelstra seemingly would prefer to offer as little as possible during his interviews. But at media day, the Miami Heat’s coach offered something.

Or at least it seemed like something.

Asked what he needed to see most going forward from his roster, Spoelstra started the conversation with Terry Rozier, Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler.

Which made it sound like four-fifths of a starting lineup.

Or did it?

“I’m not going to give you headlines about starting lineup or rotation,” Spoelstra said, “but I am definitely intentional about seeing what Terry, Tyler, Jimmy, Bam looks like. I’m not talking about who is going to be the fifth, whatever, but we need to get those guys out on the wood and see how that group can really complement each other and lift this group up.”

As for the fifth fifth of the permutation, that remains an unknown, which will provide actual preseason intrigue, starting with Tuesday night’s exhibition opener at the Charlotte Hornets.

Last season, Adebayo, Butler, Herro and Rozier started:

– Five games with Haywood Highsmith at power forward, going 2-3.

– Two games with Caleb Martin opening at the four, going 2-0.

– And that’s it. Seven games starting together.

Overall, the quintet of Adebayo, Butler, Herro, Rozier and Highsmith played 59 total minutes together last season, with a net rating of -5.6.

So removing Martin from the equation — because he removed himself in favor of the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency — there basically is no sample size.

Nikola Jovic, who stood as the Heat’s playoff starter, has never been on the court the same time as Adebayo, Butler, Herro, Rozier (with Butler and Rozier sidelined by injuries for last season’s playoffs).

Neither has Jaime Jaquez Jr.

Or Kevin Love.

Or anyone else on the roster outside of Highsmith.

So while Spoelstra spoke of getting a read on maximizing Adebayo, Butler, Herro and Rozier, a quartet that has played a grand total of 118 minutes together (with a +1 net rating), the book has yet to be written about the most complementary fifth component in such a mix.

So who will be the fifth Heatle in the team’s opening-night lineup come the Oct. 23 start of the regular season? The options are diverse and limited.

Nikola Jovic: The attributes are evident, the height at 6 feet 10, the 3-point range and the ballhandling. Each element was featured in last season’s first-round playoff loss.

But among the reasons Jovic fit that playoff lineup largely was due to the injury absences of Butler and Rozier.

Without those two, more ballhandling was needed, as was scoring.

Now the mix has changed, with the previous lack of a single Jovic minute alongside the other four potential starters perhaps a tell on how Spoelstra views such a mix.

Jovic started in the playoffs out of necessity, but it might not necessarily be a Spoelstra lineup of choice.

Then, in scrimmage video released by the team, it was indeed, Jovic in a black practice jersey working alongside Adebayo, Butler, Herro and Rozier.

Jaime Jaquez Jr.: Granted, Basketball Reference’s positional tracker can be a bit wonky, particularly amid Spoelstra’s position-less approach. But the site’s tracker had only 9% of Jaquez’s 2,113 rookie-season minutes at power forward, with 88% at either small forward or shooting guard.

Jaquez as a closing four could make more sense than as a starting four, particularly with both the overlap in skillset with Butler and the ability to play as Butler’s primary backup.

And yet, if the goal is to get your best players on the court as much as possible, Jaquez in such a role could unlock minutes for the Heat’s surfeit of talented wings, perhaps moving Jovic down the pecking order.

Kevin Love: Yes, Love played 226 minutes alongside Adebayo last season, and, yes the Heat had a +5.1 net rating in the minutes over those 34 games with the Adebayo-Love pairing.

But at 36, even Love largely has acknowledged that his role has evolved as a floor-spacing backup, lower-mileage center.

Love started five games last season. The only season he started fewer over his 18 seasons was when he opened four with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2021-22, the season he finished as runner-up to Herro for NBA Sixth Man of the Year. In that regard, he already has shown he can stand as proven depth.

Haywood Highsmith: Considering Highsmith is considered the heir apparent to all things Martin in light of Martin’s free-agency departure, and considering Martin started 72 games over the past two seasons for the Heat, there is some logic for spotting Highsmith in such a replicative role.

But that also would return the Heat to an undersized approach, an approach that has proven limiting on the boards and taxing on Adebayo.

Prior to last season’s 26 starts (largely due to the injury-riddled hot mess that was the Heat’s 2023-24 season), Highsmith had started 12 career games over his first three NBA seasons.

Still, Basketball Reference has 56% of Highsmith’s career minutes at power forward, including 43% last season, 6-5 build and all.

Kel’el Ware: Bam Adebayo didn’t start as a rookie, so it is difficult to envision such an approach with the No. 15 pick out of Indiana.

But this also could be an evolving proposition, with it interesting to see the degree Spoelstra utilizes the tandem as he cycles through rotations.

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While Ware-Adebayo might have been envisioned as a thing on draft night, it likely was envisioned from a long-view perspective.

IN THE LANE

DONE DEAL: If nothing else, the trade between New York and Minnesota that sent Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and a first-round pick to the Timberwolves for Karl-Anthony Towns was a reminder that a team operating above the first luxury-tax apron, such as the Heat, still has the ability to make moves. Under salary-cap rules, teams operating above the first apron cannot take back a single dollar more in salary than they send out. To circumvent the issue in the Randle-Towns deal, salary was offloaded to the Hornets at the cost of three second-round picks sent out to Charlotte. Of course for the Heat, that still would present issues, with the Heat’s lack of upcoming second-round capital.

DONE DEAL II: Still, there undeniably are issues with the rules in the new collective-bargaining agreement, as evidenced by the Randle-Towns deal. In order to make the salary math work — again, with the assistance of the Hornets — the Knicks had to sign to guaranteed contracts just above the minimum and then trade Charlie Brown Jr., DaQuan Jeffries and Duane Washington Jr. None of those three were going to be retained by the Knicks as free agents and none had found a landing spot, expected to shortly again be out of the league. And yet, players such as Lonnie Walker IV (Boston) and Nasir Little (Miami) were unable to find even a dime of guaranteed money available in free agency because of rosters otherwise locked in around the NBA. There seemingly has to be a better system than paying players to do nothing and not paying those who actually could do something.

STILL CHASING: Having lost to the Heat’s Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in the 2013 and 2014 Eastern Conference without a true star alongside, Paul George said on media day his offseason free-agency move to the Philadelphia 76ers was part of a continued quest to find the right winning combination. “Going up against a competitive and well-balanced and superstars in Miami, you can’t do it alone,” George said, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “You need star power. You need firepower. Not to say that I didn’t have that in Indiana, but you do figure out that this is the challenge to win a championship being a lone star.” Since his Pacers partnership with Roy Hibbert, Danny Granger, David West and Lance Stephenson, George has tried to make it work with Russell Westbrook with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kawhi Leonard with the Los Angeles Clippers, and now this gambit alongside Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey with the 76ers.

NUMEROLOGY: Before taking No. 88 upon his midseason arrival to the Heat last March, with No. 8 already held by Jamal Cain, Patty Mills solely had worn No. 8 during his previous four NBA stops. Now it’s No. 8 again after signing with the Utah Jazz in free agency. Mills explained the significance upon his arrival to Jazz camp, noting the eight Meriam tribes from the region of his aboriginal homeland in Australia. “For me to wear the number eight, just like my uncle did,” Mills told Jazz media, with his uncle, Danny Morseu, a former Australian Olympian “I feel like I’m representing my family and my people back home in Australia.”

NUMBER

1. Years in the last 13 the Heat have had a losing preseason — when they went 2-3 last year, without a single exhibition appearance from Jimmy Butler. Prior to last year, the Heat’s previous losing preseason was when they went 3-4 in 2010, the first year with the Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. The Heat open their five-game preseason schedule Tuesday in Charlotte.